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Earth wiring
Slimy38 - 26/3/13 at 08:20 AM

I'm looking to replace the earth wiring on my tintop, so I don't get the obscene alternator whine that is currently blocking any attempts to listen to music. Can anyone suggest a source of reasonably thick cable? Maplin stuff seems really overpriced and I'd rather not do Ebay if possible.


snowy2 - 26/3/13 at 08:56 AM

Alternator whine is not likely to be earth related, not wholly anyway. what you need is some capacitors from the alternator live ( often called suppressors) your aerial may also need moving or may even need earthing its self.


Slimy38 - 26/3/13 at 09:16 AM

quote:
Originally posted by snowy2
Alternator whine is not likely to be earth related, not wholly anyway. what you need is some capacitors from the alternator live ( often called suppressors) your aerial may also need moving or may even need earthing its self.


The suppressor is already on my 'to replace' list, and yes I will be checking the aerial ground itself. It's not just radio though, I can't have my MP3 player plugged into the car audio and the car power at the same time. The poor earth connections generate a hum when the engine is off, and a ridiculous amount of noise with the engine running.


snowy2 - 26/3/13 at 08:21 PM

phone chargers can be extremely noisy electrically and if your radio and the cig lighter socket share the same supply from the battery it can make the problem worse. a crappy battery will also not help.


Slimy38 - 26/3/13 at 09:07 PM

quote:
Originally posted by snowy2
phone chargers can be extremely noisy electrically and if your radio and the cig lighter socket share the same supply from the battery it can make the problem worse. a crappy battery will also not help.


Battery has been replaced with a nice shiny Bosch one less than a year ago. I suspect that the cig lighter socket actually feeds from the back of the radio via a piece of slightly damp string, so I'll look into a dedicated feed for that one. Although thinking about it a hard wired USB connector would make more sense.